Silent Strife
by Blakzer
Summary: <html><head></head>An Eevee kit is hated by his brothers for a reason he does not understand. Will he manage to stay in the family without it collapsing? Rated M for violence and attempted suicide. PMD!Verse</html>
1. Waking Up

A young Eevee kit opened its eyes for the first time in his life. His somewhat floppy ears stood up on end, eager to hear something. He looked around a bit, taking in the environment. Six figures stood around the youngster, whispering things he didn't understand. Each of these figures was a distinct color. Red, yellow, blue, green, pink, and black were their colors.

"Great," said the pink entity, "The bastard lives."

The child was very confused at this, and even moreso by the somewhat harsh tone held within its voice. He proceeded to begin whimpering uncomfortably. Whoever these strangers were, they didn't seem to bode good tidings to him. A white-ish figure approached.

"Don't you see what you're doing?" said the white figure. "You're scaring the poor thing!"

"Do you see how much of an idiot you're being?" said the black figure. "This literal bastard killed our mother!"

The Eevee looked completely appalled upon hearing what the black figure said, immediately assuming he was in the family of that black figure. Him, a child who knew little about combat, if any at all, kill someone, let alone from his family? With a terrified yelp, the Eevee began crying.

"Ugh, now look what you've done," said the white figure. "You went and made him cry."

"So?"

The white figure slapped the black figure, causing the receiver to stumble a bit.

"He's our BROTHER! That means he's still family!"

"Bah. I'm going hunting."

Yellow circles appeared on the black figure, as it walked away. The white figure looked incredibly furious, prompting the other ones to back off and do other things. It then calmed down, before extending a ribbon-like feeler towards the Eevee kit to wipe away some of the tears. With a few whimpers, the Eevee manages to speak.

"I'm… not bad, am I?"

"No, it's just your brothers acting overdramatic… I'm Midori, your sister!"

The Eevee took a few moments to think, before formulating his reply.

"I'm… Xatolikayaeno."

The white figure looked slightly confused at the mouthful of syllables directed at her.

"Let's just call you Xanto, then. Anyway, I'm a Sylveon, one of the pokemon you could eventually evolve into!"

The Eevee mouthed his sister's species name, a question coming to mind.

"...Evolve?"

"It's what will eventually happen to you. You could end up being a fiery Flareon, a spirited Vaporeon, a speedy Jolteon, an intelligent Espeon, an intriguing Umbreon, a calm Leafeon, a cool Glaceon, or a friendly Sylveon like me!"

The Eevee absorbed Midori's words, his mind racing with possibilities. He somehow knew what each of the pokemon she mentioned looked liked, likely out of instinctual knowledge provided with the naturally unstable DNA of his base species. A clanging sound rang out.

"Oh, it's the dinner bell," explained Midori. "Follow me!"

After a little travelling, the two pokemon entered a dining room, where they sat down in front of the table. His brothers eventually got around to entering the room, the last one in being the Flareon who cooked the food. The Flareon proceeded to serve each of the pokemon some type of food. Assorted berries for the Leafeon and Espeon. Meat for himself and the Umbreon. A mix of both for the Sylveon and Jolteon.

And for young Xanto… badly overcooked meat, and berries that were gradually turning to mush. Midori looked unhappy.

"Nicolas, why did you overcook Xanto's meal?"

"Accident."

"...Then was it an accident that you served him that stuff, instead of preparing additional food?"

Nicolas (the Flareon) remained silent, prompting Midori to throw Xanto's inedible mush at him, which splattered over his face. The others looked somewhat more hostile.

"You do realize that our mother trained me in how to fight, right?"

Her brothers hesitated, looks of terror momentarily flashing onto their faces. Xanto didn't exactly know his mother, but she must have been pretty strong if Midori managed to elicit those fearful responses by mentioning that his mother trained Midori in battle. The Sylveon proceeded to steal Nicolas's food, giving it to the young Eevee, forcing the Flareon to either make some more food or go without eating. Grumbling, the pokemon entered the kitchen-like area of the location they were currently inhabiting to fix some food for himself as Xanto ravenously devoured the well-cooked meat.

After everyone finished dining, they proceeded to head to their rooms. Xanto saw his brothers enter specific rooms, and chose one at random. He felt one of Midori's feelers suddenly grab him.

"...It would be a bad idea to sleep in there. You actually have another brother, that used to live with us, and that was his bedroom… There's a reason we don't talk about him, or even dare step foot within..."

Having no reason to question his sister, Xanto followed Midori into her room, before becoming acquainted with the general area and falling asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: A little side story. I already have all the chapters written up, so there's that. It's based off of something I plan on writing... so if you already know, don't spoil it.<strong>

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Game Freak does.**


	2. Losing Heart

Several years had passed since Xanto fully left the "baby" phase of his life. He was now a stocky, yet somewhat lean, Eevee who was known to his brothers and sister as a hard worker who, while being somewhat inefficient in combat, was perfectly capable of accomplishing various chores with ease. His brothers typically forced him to do things he didn't really care to do, such as dragging something to another location, but he didn't have much else to do.

Still, despite his excellent abilities under mundane situations, he still wished he was capable of fighting. None of his brothers would care to teach him how, and Midori was usually too busy or too exhausted to teach him, only rarely having "free" days. As a result, the youngest sibling tried a few different techniques on occasion, but they all eventually winded up being some variant of Tackle or Quick Attack, moves he wasn't entirely happy with. His other options were support-based, and he wanted to be able to fend for himself.

Eventually, sometime in the middle of autumn, a group of Ice Types migrated towards the cave where the family of Eeveelutions were housed. Although they didn't quite reach it, the Snover and Abomasnow in the group created an early snowfall that disrupted the lifestyle of the cave-dwellers in a wide area that included Xanto's family, forcing them to fight Usaring who were tricked into preparing for hibernation by the unnatural weather early, and thus were unprepared for the sudden attacks.

The Eeveelutions had an advantage, though, in that they were an isolated group and thus had to fight with other pokemon on a somewhat daily basis, and were typically avoided by hibernating pokemon anyway due to previous, negative experiences involving them. This only made Xanto want to learn how to fight even more, due to a desire to aid his brothers. Still, they saw him as a millstone, and thus refused to even overlook him so he could learn more attacks.

One day in this early winter, a group of very territorial Bastiodon appeared. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem, since they are typically nomadic, and thus would no longer be so obsessed over keeping their small patch of land. Plus, in the event that at least one Bastiodon in this group overlapped a road, there were always other paths to take.

Unfortunately for the Eeveelutions, they had just ran out of Sitrus berries, and the wild wasn't exactly known for giving berries out willy-nilly in the winter. Plus, the Bastiodon's territory just barely overlapped the only road to town just enough, to the point there was one that guarded it. This necessitated a mission to quickly take down the one on the road, before it could alert the other members of its group and attack the brave soul on the mission. Although Xanto's family was comprised of excellent fighters, sans himself for obvious reasons, Midori was at a very clear disadvantage against steel types in general due to her type, and a mass of charging Bastiodon would end up crushing them all underfoot. If they all went, they would be more likely to be spotted by the herd, and thus hanging targets on them in the process. Thus, a small group consisting of one or two pokemon had to go out there and eliminate the lookout.

"I propose we send Xanto and Midori to eliminate the Bastiodon in question," said Keisuke, the Vaporeon in the family. "He always wants to learn how to fight, and Midori is the only one who gives enough of a shit about him."

"Excuse me?" interjected Midori. "Are you forgetting that Bastiodon are easily capable of shrugging off my attacks due to their natural resistances, and then likely turning me into a fine red paste with a Metal Burst attack?"

An argument quickly broke out, prompting Leon, the Leafeon of the family, to groan as he slapped himself in the face. Xanto rolled his eyes as the rest of his family got enthralled in the argument, until he felt a set of fangs bite down hard onto his side. He gave a quick yelp, silencing his brothers, and prompting Midori to glare at the offending pokemon, an Umbreon named Abel.

"There. I ended your argument. Either you and Xanto go out and get those berries, or not."

Midori looked like she was about to explode. Her brothers wisely distanced themselves from her, aware of what she was capable of doing when sufficiently enraged. She walked over to Xanto.

"Fine," said Midori. "We'll leave. Just don't expect us to come back. Send another pair to deal with that Bastiodon."

With this, Midori left. Aware that his brothers would likely further abuse him, Xanto quickly chose to travel with his sister. They continued travelling until nightfall, when things significantly cooled down, and a vicious blizzard was brewed up. The siblings huddled close to each other, unable to find sanctuary from the unrelenting winds. Midori suddenly realized a weakness she was not aware of, not related to her type, but to a genetic defect.

Her fur was thinner than other Eeveelutions. Less than that of an Espeon's thin coat, but still enough to fully cover her body. Still, the damage had already been done, as she started to feel the effects of the cold swiftly. She wrapped her feelers around her brother, in the vain hope that he'd survive long enough for some kind of help to come. She closed her eyes as she felt her body begin to slow down, before succumbing to the cold.

Xanto was only aware his sister had perished five minutes after the fact, the wind causing her body to tremble. It was only when she failed to respond to his voice when he realized the worst had happened. He squirmed free of her frosted ribbons, before lying on his back in an attempt to expose himself to as much of the cold as possible, hopefully following poor Midori into the afterlife. He closed his eyes as he awaited the inevitable.

* * *

><p>When he opened his eyes again, he was decidedly not dead. The sun shone in a way behind the cloud cover that indicated that it was morning. He got up to his feet, and noticed the generally different feel of his body. He did not feel cold in the slightest, despite the fact that he was half-buried in snow. He caught sight of blue, rhombus-shaped ears just before he flicked them up out of his vision. He immediately realized that he was a Glaceon, since only one of his possible evolutions had that type of ear. He found himself unable to find Midori's body, it having been buried under the snow. It's likely that he'll be falsely accused of killing her and attacked, meaning he now has no home.<p>

A growling stomach alerted Xanto that he was hungry. He bit at the sides of his mouth a bit to test what type of teeth he had, and determined that Glaceon were primarily carnivorous, although they were capable of consuming plantlife without going off-diet. Seeing how his new body was adapted towards survival in cold climates, he decided that his best course of action was to hunt. With a few jumps, he managed to escape the snow, and rested lightly on top of it, creating no footprints on top of where he stood. If he was to run, he would likely create light ones due to the additional force he'd be putting on his body, but otherwise he wouldn't make any tracks at all.

During his hunt for possible meals, Xanto relied primarily upon his excellent sense of smell, which failed to detect anything. Eventually, he encountered a Swanna, apparently lost and confused. The way it was moving around indicated it was wild. Even if it wasn't, it would be a difficult target to take down due to his inexperience, but was his only possible meal so far. Aware it would likely notice him if he approached, Xanto used Quick Attack to get the first strike in, only to find that when it hit, it froze one of the Swanna's wings. It was then the newfound Glaceon realized that, like how he evolved, his Quick Attack had evolved into Ice Shard.

The Swanna struggled to take off, but failed due to its bad wing. It looked as if it was anticipating another close-ranged attack like Ice Shard, prompting Xanto to instinctively fire off an Icy Wind that caused it succumb to the cold weather and collapse. He proceeded to advance towards his meal, only to get hit by something and dazed. After shaking his head back and forth to get his act together, Xanto saw another Glaceon… eating his kill.

"Thanks for killing the Swanna," said the other Glaceon. "Couldn't be arsed to do it myself."

Enraged that the other Glaceon stole his kill he struggled to locate, Xanto charged at his new foe in an Ice Shard attack, catching it entirely by surprise. He felt adrenaline run through his body as it got back up to its feet, before taking a nasty Ice Beam. Even though this stranger was above his skill level… he somehow felt that he could win.

"Well… for an untrained idiot, you're a surprising threat…"

Xanto ignored the attack, and dodged another Ice Beam. He kept his distance as to get a general feel for how his foe fights, seeing how he only knows basic, instinctual battle tactics. He seemed to keep his distance, firing attacks off that were designed to strike far-away opponents. Notably, he didn't seem too phased by the Ice Shard attack, although some cuts could be observed on him. This strategy didn't seem to be gender-dependent, although basic instinct guided him in the knowledge of his opponent's gender due to the increased aggressiveness commonly associated with male Eeveelutions.

Seeing how his best attack at the moment was Icy Wind, Xanto fired off blasts of chilled air that gradually slowed the opposition down, although it was clear it wasn't dealing much damage. He then rushed at his foe in a Tackle, nimbly evading an Ice Beam fired near point-blank. His foe flinched from the attack before retaliating with another Ice Beam, which managed to put Xanto into a position where his mouth was near the other Glaceon's front leg. Not knowing what else to do in the situation, he proceeded to rip away at it, creating a large pool of blood as his bite managed to deal a critical hit, despite being done on the spur of the moment instead of a deliberate move, and thus weaker than one used as an actual move. He then fired an Icy Wind at the exposed limb, freezing the blood, and by extension, muscle in it… something that no Ice Type was capable of being immune to.

Exploiting the foe's new weakness, he dodges around the Ice beams, tears more flesh away, and freezes the blood in those limbs as well. Eventually, the enemy Glaceon was completely immobilized, brain having been deprived of oxygen long enough it fell unconscious, sealing its fate.

Satisfied, Xanto went over to his prey, and devoured what the other Glaceon didn't. Content, he wandered in the direction he thought the closest town was in.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Game Freak does.<strong>


	3. Gaining Purpose

Xanto entered a town after surviving about a week in the wilderness, having crossed a mountain in the process. He had trained himself in various ways of quick kills at a distance, his battle style having evolved to include ice-based assassination that ensured he usually got the first strike in battle, only failing if he was already spotted. He had found himself enjoying his assassination-based battle style, and prided himself on it.

As he walked the streets, he saw a few pokemon giggle and blush. No doubt they were females trying to flirt with him. He simply ignored them beyond the actions they were directing towards him, continuing on his way. They likely thought he was somewhat attractive, likely due to his origins being deeply enrooted with his family's general isolation making them more rugged. As far as Xanto cared, they were just a path to additional mouths he would be unable to feed. He might be able to get away with forcing a bill on a possible date and skedaddling, but he felt the consequences would likely be somewhat severe… after all, the only female he ever interacted with was his deceased sister.

He saw a pokemon gesture for him down an alley, and went that way. He was aware of the cramped quarters as he walked down it, and occasionally breathed slightly heavier to produce a chilling wind that, while harmless, would certainly cause any non-ice types to shiver upon being hit by it. Sure enough, he saw a few pokemon shake from this action, prompting him to stop.

"I know you're there. Show yourselves."

The pokemon emerged from their generally camouflaged location, irritated their disguise was revealed, and went ahead. Xanto continued warily following them, until a Honchkrow swooped down in front of him.

"Hmph. You've got brains, kid."

"Nothing surviving in the wilderness won't do to you."

"Another survivor, eh? Anyway, can I interest you in some… Rare Candy? First one's free..."

The Honchkrow pulled out a Rare Candy, and offered it to Xanto. The Glaceon shook his head, causing unwanted hostility towards him.

"Then what DO you want? To watch my business go to ruin?"

"To be frank, I could care less about your business. I kill stuff if I'm provoked properly enough, and I see little, if any, reason to speak. That is all. Unless…"

Xanto paused, getting the attention of the other gang members. This was exactly what he wanted. Based on what the rare Kecleon trader he overheard, they usually stopped partway through their presentation to do this.

"What are you waiting for!? Tell us!"

"Unless you let me join you."

Xanto didn't expect them all to laugh at him. Irritated, he purposely created an icicle and sniped the Rare Candy straight out of the raven's feathers with it, pinning it to a wall near another gang member's head. It then shattered, leaving no trace it was ever fired other than the drug that was forcibly moved by it. Everyone looked at Xanto oddly, except for their leader, who laughed heartily.

"You've got gumption, kid! We could use a pokemon like you in our business! The only thing you have to pay to enter is your name."

"Shiver."

"Well, nice to meet you! The name's Ichabod. Follow me."

Xanto, now known as Shiver, followed his new boss down the alley, and into a building where a few pokemon were. They all waved their limbs in hello, as Ichabod explained what his gang was about.

"Basically, our gang runs the place. Sure, the police are aware of my crimes, but they end up having to overlook them due to the favors I do for them… namely, keeping the request and wanted boards up and maintained. The reason we all laughed back there is because gang life is tough… not only do the police not give a shit about which gang you're in, even if it's mine, the other, less-nice gangs want your head. Far harder than wilderness survival."

"So basically, you help the police a bit to get them off your back, which those pokemon seem to be doing, due to your illegal activities. You also fight other gangs. Sounds fun."

"Considering what you advertised yourself as, combined with that excellent showcasing of your sniping abilities, I feel you'll fit in just fine. Of course, the police leave all the rescue boards to us, since they're the ones that left us in charge of them, as part of the agreement… you may be sent on such an assignment to update them."

Xanto looked around the office-like building, before coming across a wanted poster for a Ninetales, with an incredibly high value pinned on it.

"Who's that?"

Ichabod shivered upon noticing the poster Xanto was pointing at.

"Oh… her. Shiver, she is by far the most vile criminal to ever live. We refrain from saying HER name, for personal reasons… She's been active for a very long time. Normally, she's content with wandering the frigid mountains, her typing allowing her to endure the cold… but she occasionally makes trips down. She'll incinerate all who dare stand in her way when she's doing… something, and inflict nasty curses on those who somehow survived."

"Sounds nasty. Say, do you know of anywhere cheap I could stay the night at? And by cheap, I mean free."

"I guess you could stay here. There's a room nobody really uses, you could take that over for your own… office… bedroom… thing."

"I'd like to see this room, then."

* * *

><p>A month had passed since Xanto joined the mafia, under the name of "Shiver." He commonly found himself updating the request and wanted boards, while although a somewhat menial task, was still important to its integrity. He found that his assassinating pokemon in town was no different than killing them undetected within the wild… it was easier, even, since his targets were never tense and ready for battle, combined with him leaving no trace of his kills behind.<p>

It was just another job to update the boards in a small pub, meaning it was just another slow day for the ice fox. He noticed a Leafeon, a Raichu, and a Mawile walk in, the three of them wearing white scarves. They sat down near the request boards after offering a drink, only to hear the one thing he didn't want to hear from the Leafeon.

"...Xanto?"

After finishing putting up the requests, he made a motion that indicated that he wanted to talk alone, and the two brothers moved to a somewhat secluded table.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm more curious as to how you lived."

"You're not getting an answer until you answer my question."

"...Well, I'm a part of a rescue team now. Sure, I still don't give a damn about you, but at least that's better than what our brothers are thinking you did…"

"Which is?"

"Putting it simply, they want you to die."

"Not entirely surprised. As for the short story on why I'm alive, I chalk it up to a failed suicide attempt."

The two Eeveelutions continued discussing things, before getting to the subject of Xanto's job.

"So… what do you do?"

"...I'm part of a gang that rules the town, and is also the one responsible for keeping those boards updated. Only reason it's still in operation is that it's the sole group with access to constant updates on requests and criminals here."

Leon the Leafeon gained a sudden interest in the request board, taking a few of them down, before leaving with his team. As they left, Xanto noticed that one of Leon's group left behind their scarf. He picked it up, before leaving. He'd later dye it red in some berry juice. However, what he wouldn't see was Leon showing increased aggravation towards other pokemon, the Leafeon having been irritated. Nevertheless, the two somehow knew they'd see each other again in battle… but under what conditions, neither knew. Life continued onwards for both pokemon at a fast pace, as if fate was drawing them into battle...

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: And thus ends this little 3-part story. Who knows, we may see the Eeveelution brothers again…<strong>

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Game Freak does.**


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